Protests in Tiananmen Square

IT TAKES a cult to know a cult, and the Chinese Communist Party is determined not to give an inch of Tiananmen Square to the Falun Gong, a spiritual movement that combines meditative exercises with a loony, millenarian outlook. Since its ban in mid-1999, there have been almost daily protests in the square, though few as dramatic as that on January 23rd, the eve of the Chinese new year, when five Falun Gong members doused themselves with petrol, and set themselves on fire. At least one woman died.

To an extent, the act seems to reinforce the point that endless propaganda has been making: that this is an evil cult whose leaders hoodwink ordinary people into harming themselves. The state has long claimed the movement causes suicides. More blame, however, probably attaches to the authorities: over 100 adherents may have died in police custody. Possibly hundreds of thousands have been detained, however briefly. The Falun Gong has decried the suicide attempts.

Tiananmen Square is the symbolic centre of power in China, which is why the two cults play out their rituals on it. In many other parts of China, the authorities crack down not just on the Falun Gong, but also on lesser known cults, as well as on Christian churches not approved by the state. In particular, the party is concerned to nip disparate sites of dissatisfaction in the bud before they blossom.

But in other parts of the country, the authorities recognise that provoking the Falun Gong merely increases its resistance. In Tianjin police appear to turn a blind eye to followers who meet in private. In Hong Kong, followers may protest in public. They cause the least harm to themselves, and even lend credit to Hong Kong's government.